Orana: The Sequel--Son of Orana

I made it back to Orana one week after the first time and didn't go 6k out of my way this time--nor did I see any interesting road kill. It's a sad day when a hedgehog pancake doesn't make the interesting list anymore.

Instead of meeting a small group of rural school kids, I was met by 50ish city pre-teens. I smell the angst and hormones, or as I wrote in my notes, "chew the adolescent frustration." Sometimes, I'm poetic I guess. Anyhow, Toby was gone to a big ARAZA conference in Oz, so I shadowed Liz instead, and got to meet a lot of the rest of the Orana staff. It seems like it would be a really fun place to work and there is a healthy balance of screwing around and actual producitivity. It was Liz's first time teaching a program on evolution, and it was strange to her at least that it would be done with students so young. Because of concerns, many parents accompanied the kids.

The program wasn't at all what I expected it to be. It was mostly enforcement of "form follows function," which is really fun when you can point at animals and go, "Kids, think about this giraffe and where it would live in the wild. What do you know about giraffes that makes it suited to its environment?" and then going from there. By the way, I got to feed giraffes again and was thoroughly tasted myself by a giraffe. She's a saucy old biddy.

Something that I'm pretty sure would never fly in the US was a question Liz asked while we were by the big cats--"Would you rather be killed an eaten by a lion or by a cheetah?" She then used this question to talk about how large carnivores can occupy the same space without being in necessarily direct competition with eachother. By the way, Lion is the better choice. It's over before you even know it happened. Cheetah's chase, disembowl you, and then take a nap while you bleed out. Granted, if that's your thing, all the power to you.

I was late getting back to campus this time though, but didn't nearly get hit by an airplane, so it was a good day. I am very thankful for my experiences at Orana, and hope that if I find my way back to this country and need something to do, they will welcome me.